I was in petco yesterday buying gravel, so I was checking out the bettas and they have the cups on racks with all the cups right smack up against each other, and so many of them were flaring like crazy. I noticed two red crowntails who were SERIOUSLY going at it, and i kept going back and looking, they never stopped the whole time i was in the store. isn't this stressful for the fish? I notice in my local petsmart the cups are on a shelf, but there is some space between them so they don't seem to notice their neighbors. I felt so bad for these two, I wanted to take one of them home just so they could relax! it just doesn't seem like that could be good for them to be so fired up like that constantly without a break.

They'll be okay, after a day or so they'll pipe down. It's common for them to do that, even if they are spaced apart but it's most likely that they are new or one of them is new. Once they realize they can't get at each other, they'll settle down and in the store it will be faster since the temp is cooler which slows their metabolism and they'll end up just sitting there like the rest of them.